Southern San Juan
SnowpackChris Bilbrey · Apr 11, 2019 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Cold, moderate winds with strong gusts, and transitional cloud cover - overcast to obscured to broken then repeat. Light snow showers did not amount to any measurable accumulations today. When the sun did make an appearance, temperatures felt noticeably warmer.
Snowpack
After cooler temperatures and a solid freeze, old-snow surface was frozen solid and very supportable. The primary concern for today was bonding of the old/ new snow. We found around 8" at 10,000 feet with upwards of 10" near treeline and drifting two to three feet thick. In general, the new snow was bonding well on below treeline slopes - no slab formation or sluffing. We observed shallow cracking under foot in wind-drifted snow near treeline. Strong winds thickened snow along ridges and made it feel much slabbier and upside-down. ECTs produced propagating results on an east aspect and non-propagating test results on a southeast aspect in wind-drifted snow. Small test slopes did not produce widespread results in the new snow. This part of the range got blasted by strong southwest and northwest to north winds in the last 24 hours. SW-W-N aspects above treeline are scoured down to the old-snow surface and many leeward facing slopes also had patches of scouring. If winds continue out of the northwest to north without any new snow, available snow for transport will be limited in the coming days.